Mountain Lions in GSMNP

[gpburdelljr]

According to that wiki link you provided, a recent study determined that all North American cougars (Western, Eastern and Floridian) are all one subspecies separated only by geography, not genetics. "The researchers found that "Nittany Lions are not more similar to each other than to individuals from the Western U.S. and Florida", which only strengthens the position that all North American cougars are a single subspecies." Here's a link to the actual study, which suggests that the sample size from the Western cougar was not large enough to actually make that definitive conclusion. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/bior...14510.full.pdf

My original post was in response to post #51 which stated:

“Nobody in the park service wants to confirm any sort of mountain lion presence. To do so would bring in the endangered species act which is a whole new universe of pain in the ass to deal with.”

Whether the Eastern cougar is distinct from the Western cougar, or not, doesn’t matter when it comes to endangered species lists. The USFWS still considers the Eastern cougar a distinct subspecies that is now extinct, and has removed them from the endangered species list. Even if the USFWS accepts recent studies suggesting that all American cougars are one subspecies, they would still not be on the endangered species list.

The USFWS, which is responsible for identifying terrestrial endangered species, considers the Florida Panther as endangered, but not the western cougar.